Editorial Note: The
following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may
also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology.
Comments are in parentheses.

Putting the Zionist Israeli War on Gaza in Perspective

By Hassan El-Najjar

Editor of ccun.org,
January 10, 2009

The Zionist
Israeli terrorist war on the Gaza Strip has continued for the fifteenth day.
The Israeli US-made F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters have continued
bombing all areas of the Gaza Strip spreading death and destruction and
terrorizing innocent civilians, particularly women and children, in
violation of the US law which prohibits targeting civilians. The Israeli
terrorist forces also have been using European-made naval vessels in
bombarding various areas of the Palestinian territory.

The
official statistics about the Palestinian death toll reached 830, the
injuries reached 3350. Many more Palestinian civilians have been killed
and injured but were not included in the official statistics because of the
continuous Israeli terrorist attacks. Death and destruction hit every
residential area in the Gaza Strip.

Among today's victims of Israeli
terrorism were 30 civilians, 8 of them from one family. The victims
included at least 230 children, 91 women, and 3 journalists.

The
Palestinian resistance fighters have demonstrated their readiness to fight a
long-term urban warfare against the Zionist, terrorist invaders.
Yesterday, they killed 12 Israeli soldiers in Gaza and launched their
missiles against Israeli targets as far away as 45 kilometers from Gaza.
Today's news from Arabic TV stations show formidable resistance to the
Israeli terrorist invasion, represented by rockets and missiles launched
at many Israeli targets as far away as 50 kilometers from Gaza. There are news about so many confrontations,
only TV stations can cope with, in
which Israeli soldiers are killed or injured, and Israeli military
vehicles are destroyed.

At the same time, many many Palestinian
civilians are killed and injured, and their homes are destroyed by the
Israeli terrorist war machine. The entire Gaza Strip population of more
than 1.5 million people are held hostage to the Israeli savagery. They still
suffer from lack of food, medicine, electricity, running water, and
rescue services.

The Israeli terrorist war on Gaza points to the
core of the conflict. Most Gazans are basically Palestinian refugees who
were evicted from their homes and lands in 1948 and were never allowed
to return to their property, contrary to what UN resolutions 184 and 191 call for.
Once again, this conflict will not be resolved without justice, without
giving Palestinians their rights, as stated in the UN relevant
resolutions.

Theft of property is wrong. Palestinians have to be allowed to have
their own state, according to the UN Partition resolution, which allows
most of the refugees to live in the Arab State of Palestine. Using
forces to force Palestinians to surrender will not work. It has never
worked in every case of invasion, occupation, and oppression.

It
has not worked for the Crusaders in the Middle Ages, nor for Germans
when they occupied most of Europe, nor for Americans in Korea and
Vietnam, nor for the Soviets in Afghanistan, nor for Americans in Iraq and
Afghanistan. The Zionist Israeli dreams of enslaving Palestinians and
establishing the Israeli Empire in the Middle East will never happen.

God has created people equal at the moment of birth. God doesn't like it when some of
them try to enslave and oppress others. He doesn't tolerate it when some
of them try to impose themselves on nations to worship them instead of
Him. His
punishment will happen whenever this happens, as it happened in every previous case.

The Zionists in Israel are armed to teeth. They are intoxicated with the trillions of dollars
other Zionists have
looted from the US and other capitalist countries. They have controlled
governments of the US and other NATO countries and dragged them to fight
Israeli wars against Arab and Muslim states in order to pave the way to
establish the mythical Israeli empire in the oil-rich Middle East.

The
Israeli Zionists cannot believe that with all their power and control
over the US-EU governments, they still cannot control Palestinians in
the Gaza
Strip, which may explain the fierce cruelty they inflict on the
Palestinian civilian population there. The Zionists do not want to
believe that the resistance of the invaded nations will ultimately
achieve victory, they are trying to avoid the disgraceful fate of
previous
cruel invaders and occupiers, who went to the dust bin of history.

The unlimited financial, economic, and military support from the
Zionist-controlled US-EU governments has enabled the Israeli terrorists
to continue their war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza Strip,
with thousands of women and children killed and injured, without an end
in sight despite the ceasefire resolution passed by the UN Security
Council, which is crippled by the Zionist control of US-EU votes.

The Zionists have been successful in destroying the state of Iraq,
occupying Afghanistan, subjugating Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, and the Arab
Gulf States. However, they have achieved nothing so far. There is
resistance everywhere to their wicked dream of subjugating the Arab and
Muslim world with the US-EU blood, money, and military equipment.

The
60-year-long war to subjugate the Palestinian people has not ended yet.
Palestinians have refused to be the slaves of Khazari Zionists who have
no roots in the Middle East. All indications show that it will end only
with victory for the Palestinian people, the rightful owners of the Holy
Land, the descendants of the Cana'anites, and the true descendants of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The resistance in Iraq destroyed the
dreams of Wolfowitz, Pearle, and Feith, who planned the war and dragged
the US to execute it with its money and with the blood of its sons and
daughters, leading to the collapse of its financial system.

Voices are being heard now calling for investigations
and prosecutions of those who have allowed the Israeli use of US weapons to
kill civilians in Gaza, thanks to Congressman Kucinich.

The US
treasury was looted with hundreds of billions of dollars in 2008. The
catastrophic $10.7 trillion US national debt was caused by the
Zionist-imposed military
and security spending to achieve goals of the Zionist empire, not the US
nation state. The way for the US out of the Zionist bondage is the
adoption of a national US currency, other than the dollar, which is
really the currency of the Zionist Empire. Then, the dollar will be
worthless, and the trillions of dollars which the Zionists extorted from
nations will be worthless too.

This step of adopting a US
national currency, other than the dollar, is necessary before the total Zionist
destruction of the United States.

It's time for Americans to
stand up to this Zionist systematic destruction of their nation state in
service of the wicked dream of the Israeli empire in the Middle East.

Another major step should be counter-balancing the influence of Zionists
in the US government by appointing non-Zionist Christian and Muslim Americans in the
major decision-making positions in government, as most of these
positions are now occupied by Zionists, Jews and gentile, who have been biased in favor of Israel.

This step is what's called checks and balances, which is required but not
achieved in US government appointments yet. Sacking
all those who are loyal to Israel from the departments and agencies of the US
government in all levesl is necessary to save America and the world from
the endless state of war. US officials should pledge allegiance only to
the US, not to Israel as most of them do every year when they travel to the
Zionist state and stand before AIPAC.

AIPAC represents a foreign
entity. Participation in its activities, including working in its think
tanks, or speaking
in its annual meetings should be a disqualifier for anyone from assuming any job in
any level in the government, local, state, or federal. Otherwise, they
will be serving a foreign entity on the expense of the United States.

This is
the way for America and the world out of the continuous state of Zionist
wars, death, and destruction.

Planet Earth is hungry for peace,
love, and prosperity, access to which has been denied for a long time by
Zionists.

Nothing is impossible to achieve, the one-thousand mile journey starts
with just one step.

Hamas said on Friday that most of the targets attacked by the Israeli
occupation airforce ad ground forces have been civilian targets and that
the resistance has lost very little so far.

Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, said that the
targeting by Israelis of civilian installations indicates a grave
military and political failure on the part of the Israeli occupation.

"The more than 1000 targets struck by the Zionist enemy were
civilian, including universities, hospitals, mosques and houses. This
sort of targeting indicates a failure on the part of the enemy which has
so far not confronted the resistance on the ground."

He pointed out that the Israeli occupation ground forces remained
close to borders and in open areas to avoid confrontations with the
resistance.

Meanwhile, the Qassam Brigades announced that in addition to the 8
IOF troops killed in a house they occupied in the Salatin neighbourhood
of Beit Lahya in the northern Gaza Strip, its sniper have managed to
kill on Friday another 4 IOF soldiers in different areas of the Gaza
Strip. This brings the number of IOF soldiers killed in Gaza by the
resistance since the start of the ground invasion to 45 and the number
of IOF soldiers wounded to 120, according to Hamas sources.

Furthermore, the Qassam Brigades, announced on Friday morning that
its fighters fired on Friday morning a Grad rocket at an Israeli
occupation military air base of Tal-Nov about 45 kilometres from Gaza,
so far the farthest place targeted the Palestinian resistance.

QB: Its fighters killed 8 IOF soldiers in Beit Lahya

[ 09/01/2009 - 06:18 PM ]

IOA acknowledges death of three soldiers despite unprecedented media
blackout

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

The Israeli occupation army has acknowledged Thursday that at least
three soldiers, including a major, of its elite troops were killed with
Palestinian resistance bullets in northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli acknowledgment came despite the strict media blackout the
Israeli occupation government imposed on the events in Gaza.

Ten more Israeli soldiers were also wounded in the battle, according
to official Hebrew sources. Two more Israeli troopers were killed by
Palestinian snipers, the sources confirmed.

But Palestinian fighters asserted they have killed at least 33
Israeli soldiers and wounded more than 100 others since the Israeli
aggression on Gaza began 14 days ago.

At dawn Friday, the IOF troops pulled out of the Qarara town, east of
Khan Younis city, after fierce clashes with the Palestinian resistance
fighters led by the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. Six
Palestinian citizens, including three elderly people, were killed by the
IOF during the incursion.

Meanwhile, the Qassam Brigades, on Friday evening, said its fighters
stormed a house occupied by IOF troops in the Salatin neighborhood of
Beit Lahya and killed at least eight of them.

IOF troops kill more Palestinian children, women in Gaza

[ 09/01/2009 - 05:56 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The brutal Israeli occupation army continued its monstrous aggression
on the tiny Gaza Strip for the fourteenth successive day, killing around
800 Palestinians and wounding more than 3250 others, hundreds of them in
serious condition.

According to Dr. Muaweyya Abu Hassanien, the director of the
emergency department in the PA health ministry in Gaza Strip confirmed
that at least 50% of the martyrs were children and women, adding that
ambulance teams were unearthing new bodies of Palestinian civilians
buried under the rubbles of their homes that were destroyed by the
Israeli air strikes and tank shelling.

Paramedics and ambulance vehicles face big difficulties in reaching
out to wounded Palestinian civilians, especially in the northern part of
the coastal Strip where many Palestinian families believed to be killed
or forced out of their homes at the hands of the IOF troops.

At least eight paramedics and a doctor were killed after IOF troops
deliberately shot them as they tried to aid wounded children and women
in various areas of the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Basim Naim, the PA minister of health, confirmed that Gaza
hospitals face sharp shortage in medicine and medical equipment and
couldn’t cope with the increasing number of Palestinian victims.

He also pointed out that 50% of the ambulance vehicles were either
destroyed or suspended that, he added, doubles the burden on the
Palestinian doctors and paramedics, urging an immediate help from
doctors in neighboring Arab countries.

Tens of Arab doctors and surgeons had been waiting at the Rafah
crossing point for nearly one week, and prepared to go into Gaza Strip
to help their Palestinian colleagues, but the Egyptian authorities
refused to allow them in.

However there were reports on Friday evening of 11 Arab doctors
crossing the Rafah terminal into the Gaza Strip to help their
Palestinian colleagues.

The intensive Israeli air, land, and sea shelling had targeted
civilian homes in addition to schools run by the UNRWA were hundreds of
Palestinian families sought a refuge. At least 30 Palestinian civilians
were massacred in the UNRWA-run Al-Fakhora school in Jabalya city after
Israeli warplanes shelled it.

Local mosques and civil infrastructure were also destroyed by the
intensive Israeli bombardment. Local observes opined that the Israeli
behavior in targeting civilians reflects their failure in defeating the
Palestinian resistance despite the simple weapons they have compared to
the Israeli state-of-the-art weapons.

The Israeli occupation government imposed media blackout on the
Israeli casualties in the war in Gaza with the aim not to demoralize the
Israeli public; but sources in the Palestinian resistance confirmed that
tens of Israeli soldiers, including high-ranking officers were killed
and wounded in the ongoing fighting.

US Congressman calls for inquiry into illegal use of US
weapons by Israel

Friday January 09, 2009 19:30 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

After reports emerged from Gaza that Israel bombed a United Nations
School on Tuesday, where people had sought refuge from Israeli military
attacks, US Congressman Dennis Kucinich has called for an investigation
into Israel's possible illegal use of US-supplied weapons.

The US is the single largest supplier of weapons to Israel, with over
$3 billion in weapons transfers taking place each year. In addition to
F16 fighter jets, guns, tanks and bombs, the US has also supplied Israel
with tens of thousands of cluster bombs, weapons which have been
declared illegal under international law.

In a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Kucinich
stated, “I believe that with the current escalation of violence in Gaza,
a legal threshold has been reached, warranting a Presidential
examination and report to Congress. I hereby request an examination of
Israel’s compliance with the provisions of the Arms Export Control Act
of 1976 (AECA).

While neither the AECA nor the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA)
define 'internal security' and 'legitimate self-defense,' I believe that
Israel’s most recent attacks neither further internal security nor do
they constitute 'legitimate' acts of self-defense. They do, however,
'increase the possibility of an outbreak or escalation of conflict,'
because they are a vastly disproportionate response to the provocation,
and because the Palestinian population is suffering from those military
attacks in numbers far exceeding Israeli losses in life and property.”

Kucinich stated that he supports “Israel's security and its right to
exist in peace, without the fear of rocket attacks from Hamas. Moreover,
I abhor the violence being visited upon the citizens of our firm ally.”
But he says that, “no nation is immune from the legal conditions placed
on the receipt of U.S. military assistance.”

Israel has long held a 'special relationship' with the US, in which
its actions against the civilian population of the Palestinian
territories it has occupied with military force since 1967, the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, go unquestioned by US leadership.

But according to Congressman Kucinich, “I believe that Israel’s use
of defense articles provided by the U.S in the current Gaza military
attacks may constitute a violation of the AECA. At a minimum, the
conflict is sufficient to warrant an immediate report to Congress as
required by 22 U.S.C. §2753.”

He asked Secretary of State Rice to, “Please contact my office by
close of business on January 7, 2009 with the date the report will be
submitted.”

As of January 9th, Kucinich says he has not yet received a response.

15th day under attack: death toll in Gaza reaches 804,
Journalists attacked by the army fire

Saturday January 10, 2009 10:57 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

The Israeli army continued last night and this morning to target the
Gaza Strip, while the military operation entered its 15th day on
Saturday.

The bodies of three children from the same family killed in Gaza by
the Israeli shelling on Monday â€“ Photo by WAFA

Palestinian sources reported that Israeli forces shelled on
Saturday at dawn residential areas located in Kahn Younis, Rafah in the
southern part of the Gaza Strip and Gaza city and nearby refugee camps
in the central Coastal Region.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the death
toll in Gaza due to the Israeli continued attacks on Gaza now stands by
Saturday midday at 709, with 3300 injured among them 500 in critical
conditions.

The Israeli Army embarked on its military offensive on Saturday
December 27, 2008. Israeli warplanes started by shelling all the
Palestinian security posts there. In the following days, the shelling
was expanded. Hospitals, homes, blacksmith workshops, schools, and
mosques where targeted. Day and night the entire Palestinian coastal
region was under attack. On Saturday January 3, 2009, Israeli ground
forces entered the Gaza strip and divided it into two sections.

Also on Saturday Palestinian Journalists protested in Gaza City
against the Israeli attacks on them. On Friday night Ala Al
Murtaje, a local journalist in Gaza, was killed and his mom sustained
critical wounds when his home came under Israeli fire.

Al Murtaje is the third journalist to be killed by the Israeli
shelling. Last week Eyhab Al wahidi, who is a camera man for the
Palestinian President office in Gaza and Bassel Faraj, a Cameraman for
the Algerian TV where killed in similar shelling.

In addition Israeli jet fighters shelled on Friday evening Al Johara
building, in Gaza City, the building host journalists' offices working
for local and Arab media. According to journalists the missile hit near
the studios of the live feed nearly killing them.

Israeli did not allow international journalists to enter the Gaza
strip since the attacks started three weeks ago.

Palestinian Legislator Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, secretary-general of
the Palestinian National Initiative, stated in a press conference on
Saturday at the Watan Media Center in Ramallah, that Israel continues
its crimes in Gaza for the fifteenth day, and is committing war crimes
by shelling civilian homes and killing children, women and elderly.

Dr. Barghouthi added that the large number of civilian casualties
proves that Israel’s claims of targeting the fighters are false and
outrageous.

He demanded documenting all statistics and cases in preparation for
an international criminal investigation and demanded the formation of an
international committee which would be in charge of prosecuting Israeli
officials responsible for these crimes.

The Palestinian Legislator also said that Israel is not only
targeting civilians but also targeting medical personnel as 13 medics
and physicians were killed by the Israeli army during the ongoing
offensive.

He added that the army shelled hospitals, schools and mosques which
increased the number of civilian casualties.

Dr. Barghouthi further said Israel’s statements that the fighters its
army is kidnapping in Gaza are illegitimate are very serious claims
which are considered an approval to kill them after they are captured.

Commenting on Jordan’s decision to withdraw its ambassador to Israel,
Dr. Barghouthi said that this is a positive step that should be followed
similar steps by other Arab and Foreign countries.

He slammed the Pentagon’s decision to transfer weapons to Israel and
considered this decision as an active American participation in the war
crimes carried out by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people.
“It is a blow to the upcoming Obama Administration which is preparing to
move into the White House”, Dr. Barghouthi added.

Qaddoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, said that
Israel’s kidnapping of civilians in Gaza and the media blackout on the
issue is very serious as it gives the army a free hand to assassinate
the kidnapped residents.

Fares added that the army is not providing any information about the
number of kidnapped residents or their whereabouts “Which gives the army
the opportunity to execute them, through their bodies in the streets,
and claim that they were killed in during clashes”.

The Society demanded the Red Cross to perform its duties in the Gaza
Strip and to act in order to receive information on the abducting
residents.

Doctor Moawiya Hassanen, of the Palestinian Ministry of Health,
reported Saturday that 804 Palestinians, including 230 children, 92
women, and 92 elderly were killed, and more than 3300 were wounded; 400
seriously.

No end in site, offesnive continues, more civilians continue
to fall

Saturday January 10, 2009 11:14 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

As the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip continued for the
second week, the Israeli army killed more than 804 Palestinians and
wounded at least 3300. On Friday at night, Palestinian resistance
continued its clashes with the invading forces; fierce battles were
reported on Friday at night and Saturday at dawn in Beit Lahia and Al
Atatra.

Doctor Moawiya Hassanen, of the Palestinian Ministry of Health,
reported Saturday that 804 Palestinians, including 230 children, 92
women, and 92 elderly were killed, and more than 3300 were wounded; 400
seriously.

Dr. Hassanen added that two reporters and three international women
were among the casualties. He also said that the army damaged 14
ambulances and killed twelve medics.

On Saturday, twelve Arab physicians made it into Gaza; nine of them
are Egyptian, one Moroccan and one Jordanian.

During a series of shelling and air strikes on Friday the army killed
29 Palestinians and wounded dozens of other residents.

On Friday at noon, a 60-year old man and his wife were killed and
their son was wounded in an Israeli shelling in northern Gaza.

Three more Palestinians were killed in Abasan Al Sughra in Khan
Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian child was also killed on Friday and another child was
wounded when the army shelling a home in Jabalia, in the northern part
of the Gaza Strip.

On the same day, a 42-year old woman was killed; another woman and a
child were wounded when the army shelled another home in Al Qarm area in
Jablia.

In Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the army
killed a mother, four of her sons and her sister. The ages of her slain
sons are between 4 and 14. At least eighteen more residents were
wounded.

Three Palestinians were killed in the central Gaza Strip and seven
more were wounded in a shelling carried out by the Israeli Navy in Al
Zawaida town in the central Gaza Strip.

Israel enters third week of war with attacks on media -
six dead overnight; 802 since violence began

Date: 10 / 01 / 2009 Time: 09:31 Gaza – Ma’an –

Since midnight Saturday morning Israeli fire has killed six
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, targeting family homes media
institutions and factories.

Israel is continuing its targeting
of homes in the northern and central Gaza Strip, and has reported
bombing more than 70 targets since Friday morning, killing more than 35
people during the course of the day.

Resistance fighters
launched more than 20 projectiles aimed at Israeli targets during the
day.

According to Israeli sources, at least 646 projectiles have
been launched since the invasion began on 27 December.

As of
Saturday morning local time, 801 Palestinians in Gaza were dead as a
result of the Israeli violence.

Media targets

Journalist
Ala Mortaji died Friday evening from wounds sustained when Israeli tank
fire hit his home during an invasion of the Zaitoun district of Gaza
City earlier in the day.

Mortaji is the third journalist to be
killed in the Israeli violence in Gaza, he worked as a radio broadcast
personality in Gaza on a local radio show.

Medical sources
confirmed Ala’s death, and said his mother had her arms amputated after
the attack.

The home of another reporter, Samir Khalifah in the
Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, was targeted by Israeli fire,
district was badly damaged. The family said they narrowly escaped death,
having moved to the lower floor of the home only a few hours before the
Israeli attack and were thus able to flee the fire that broke out in the
home after it was hit by Israeli bombs.

The Jawwhara media
tower, home to more than 20 news agencies and production studios, was
targeted late Friday night.

With the destruction of the towers
the offices of the Palestine Media Company, Dubai TV, Al-Alam TV (Iran),
Turkish satellite television, the Chinese satellite network, the Lebanon
Broadcasting Company (LBC) and Kuwait TV were put out of commission.

Civilian homes targeted

Including the homes of the two
reporters, Israeli aircraft targeted nine civilian homes across Gaza
overnight; three in Gaza City , two in Rafah, and one near the Nasr
Children’s hospital.

Jihad As-Semery was killed and three others
injured in a shelling of a house in Karara city in southern Gaza.

When shells hit the Abu Al-Kheir family home in the Zaitoun
neighborhood of Gaza City two civilians were killed.

The home of
the Balbisy family in the An-Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip was
leveled overnight, though the family had already evacuated the area for
an unknown location.

Israeli fire targets factories and
government complexes

The Israeli army shelled the security
department complex in the center of Khan Younis as well as the
headquarters of the civil defense.

A rocket propelled grenade hit
a factory east of Khan Younis killing two security guards from the Astal
family.

Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades reported to have killed eight Israeli
soldiers taking cover in a home in Beit Lahiya on Friday.

The
Brigades added in a statement that a Special Force of fighters attacked
the soldiers “in a quick and qualified operation.”

The fighters
broke into the home, killed at least eight soldiers and confiscated
their weapons. The home the soldiers were taking cover in was in the As-Salteen
neighborhood of Beit Lahia in the western Gaza Strip.

A
spokesperson with the Israeli army denied the report. So far Israel has
confirmed the death of ten soldiers in the Gaza invasion.

Gaza’s armed factions launched projectiles at the western Negev
Saturday, and continued to clash with Israeli ground troops in Gaza,
reportedly injuring five soldiers near the borders of the Strip. Clashes

Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds fighters
attacked Special Forces as they rested in a home in the northern Gaza
Strip near the American school. The Brigades statement said fighters
used Rocket Propelled Grenades and medium grade weaponry to surprise the
soldiers, saying a number were killed during the operation.

All
Al-Quds fighters were able to flee the scene safely, according to a
statement from the group.

Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades said they
detonated two explosive devices near Israeli soldiers and shot an
Israeli soldier with sniper fire on Mount Kashef east of Gaza City.

The group said they also targeted a configuration of soldiers east
of Jabaliya with RPGs and shot at soldiers near the Gaza Strip borders.
They did not indicate whether soldiers had been injured.

A
military wing calling itself Jaysh Al-Umma (Army of the Nation) claimed
to have shot an Israeli soldier southeast of the Zaitoun neighborhood
south of Gaza City Saturday morning,

The Eagles of Palestine
said they shelled a compound housing Israeli tanks north of Makbara Ash-Sharkyah
with two 15mm mortar shells.

The National Resistance Brigades
said they shelled several tanks east of Al-Maghazy with a developed
projectile launcher before dawn Saturday.

Israeli sources said
five soldiers were injured in clashes with Palestinian resistance
factions Friday, and there has been no word on how many were injured
Saturday. Projectiles

Islamic Jihad’s
armed wing the Al-Quds Brigades said resistance fighters fired three
projectiles at the Eshkol area of the western Negev.

The Brigades
also launched four mortar shells towards the Nahal Oz military point in
a joint action with the “Eagles of Palestine,” a group previously
unheard of, which began conducting military operations shortly after
Israel began its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Israel confirmed
that three projectiles landed in Eshkol Saturday, with no injuries
reported; several mortar shells were also reported to have landed near
military compounds near the Gaza borders.

Trapped by Israeli troops six days in one room, 33 Gazans
seek Red Cross intervention

Date: 09 / 01 / 2009 Time: 22:32 Gaza – Ma’an –

A family trapped by Israeli forces in for six days one room of their
home in the Al-Mughrqa area, south of Gaza City, phoned Ma’an on Friday
seeking urgent rescue.

The Al-Wahidi family is appealing to the
Red Cross, human rights organizations, or any relevant organization, to
intervene and rescue them.

Salem Yousef Al-Wahidi, the owner of
the family house, says 33 members of the family have been trapped in the
house without food or drink since Sunday, when Israeli tanks moved into
the area.

Al-Wahidi said Israeli soldiers forced them into one
room. The soldiers are still occupying the roof of the building and the
surrounding area. The army has refused to allow food, including milk for
the small children among them.

Jawwara building, with more than 20 press offices inside, hit
by Israeli missiles

Date: 09 / 01 / 2009 Time: 20:07 Gaza - Ma'an -

Israeli airstrikes hit the Jawwara building in Gaza City on Friday
afternoon.

The building was home to more than 20 local, national
and international press offices.

No injuries were reported, but
the already limited information coming out of Gaza, given Israel's
decision to bar international journalists from the area, will be further
compromised.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert Friday, expressing his disappointment over the continued Israeli
violence in the Gaza Strip.

According to Ki-Moon’s spokesperson
Michele Montas, the UN head is “working right now on those diplomatic
channels,” to ensure that the UN Security Council Resolution, passed
Friday morning local time, is implemented in Gaza.

Media organizations spoke out against the recent Israeli policy of
targeting press members and buildings, calling it a policy of
frightening the media into silence.

The Palestinian Press
Syndicate condemned Saturday the Israeli decision to target journalists
working in Gaza strip and putting them in danger.

The syndicate
expressed grave concern over the Israeli bombing of the Jawhara media
tower. In a statement the syndicate noted that symbols representing the
local and international press were covering the building and it could
not have been mistaken for a separate target.

“The aim of such
acts is to frighten the press and reporters into halting coverage of
what is happening in Gaza,” the syndicate statement said.

The
International Federation of Journalists (IFA), the Commission for
Journalists’ Protection, international press organizations, demanded the
protection of the Palestinian press working in Gaza.

In their
statement the groups called Israel’s decision to forbid the foreign
press from entering Gaza proof that the Israeli occupation seeks to
conceal the rimes being carried out against civilians and the press.

The syndicate demanded the anti-press policies be halted immediately
and steps be taken to ensure the safety of the local press, and ensure
requests from international media organizations for access to Gaza are
granted.

Barghouthi: Israel is stifling Arab press action in Gaza,
West Bank and Israel

Date: 10 / 01 / 2009 Time: 11:51 Ramallah -
Ma’an -

Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and Secretary
General of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouthi
condemned the Israeli attacks on the Jawwhara media towers.

The
attack injured one reporter and destroyed the offices of more than 20
media outlets including local Arabic and satellite channels.

“Israel forbade the foreign press from coming in [to Gaza] to cover the
events [in order] to conceal its crimes,” Barghuthi said in a statement.
He accused Israel of trying to suppress the voice of the Arab press as
well by shelling the homes of journalists and destroying communications
equipment that allow images of the Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip to
reach the world.

The death of a photojournalist with the Algerian
news earlier this week and the cameraman of the National Palestine
Television Friday night as well as the arrest of Al-Alam reporter after
the first days of the Israeli military actions, are not a coincidence,
said Barghouthi.

Israel is purposefully targeting journalists
through the “protection wall operation” implemented after 2000 in the
West Bank in an effort to stifle press offensive to Israel.

Gaza officials: Massive sewage flood imminent

Saturday January 10, 2009 10:41 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Due to the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza, nearly 700,000
Palestinians have gone without water for days, and sewage pumping
systems have stopped. In many places, raw sewage is running through the
streets, and officials have warned that a massive sewage flood, like the
one in 2007 that killed 5 people, could occur at any time.

2007 sewage flood in Um Al-Nasser village

One million people in Gaza remain without electricity for nearly two
full weeks. The Deputy Director of the Coastal Municipalities Water
Utility, Maher Najjar, told Israeli reporter Amira Hass that between 40
and 50 % of the Gazan population are now without access to water.

There are 37 sewage pumping stations in Gaza. Due to the lack of
electricity, 5 of them are completely out of operation, and the
remaining 32 are only partially operational.

In March 2007, Um Al Nasser village in northern Gaza was completely
flooded with sewage when a 6.5 acre septic cesspool containing 20,0000
cubic meters of sewage water collapsed, killing five people and causing
hundreds to be made homeless.

Now, a similar disaster may be about to occur, on top of the military
assault that has left nearly 800 people dead in the last two weeks.
Local officials report that both fresh-water pumping systems that
provide water to the residents of Gaza, and sewage pumping systems,
pumping out human wastewater, are on the verge of collapse in many
areas. The biggest wastewater treatment plant, in northern Gaza, was
supposed to have been emptied a month ago due to the potential for
flooding. Now, the risk of breakage and flooding has reached a crisis,
with 10,000 people at risk if a flood does occur.

According to Maher Najjar of the Coastal Municipalities Water
Utility, a major water pipe providing clean water to 30,000 residents in
central Gaza was damaged by an Israeli air strike, and a sewage pumping
station in Beit Lahiya stopped working after its generator was destroyed
by an Israeli missile, causing sewage to flood the street.

In Beit Hanoun, sewage has been flowing through the street for a full
week, after an intake pipe to the sewage treatment plant was hit by an
Israeli missile.

And in Gaza City, four out of seven sewage pumping stations have run
out of diesel fuel for their generators, and are pumping sewage directly
into the sea. The remaining three are dumping raw sewage onto farmland
near Gaza City. Soon this sewage will be on the streets of Gaza City,
unless pumping is restored.

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